John Harvey Kellogg Quotes

1. The moment that prostitution is placed under the protection of law by means of a license, it at once loses half its disrepute, and becomes respectable, as do gambling and liquor-selling under the same circumstances. 2. Why should so vile a crime as fornication be taken under legal protection more than stealing or the lowest forms of gambling. Is it not a lesser crime against human nature to rob a man of his money by theft or by deceit and trickery than to snatch from him at one fell swoop his health, his virtue, and his peace of mind?

Hereditary Effects of Venereal Disease.-The transgressor is not the only sufferer. If he marries, his children, if they survive infancy, will in later years show the effects of their father’s sin, exhibiting the forms of the disease seen in its later stages. Scrofula, consumption, cancer, rickets, diseases of the brain and nerves, decay of the bones by caries or necrosis, and other diseases, arise in this way. But it generally happens that the child dies before birth, or lingers out a miserable existence of a few days or weeks thereafter. A most pitiable sight these little ones are. Their faces look as old as children of ten or twelve. Often their bodies become reduced before death to the most wretched skeletons. Their hollow, feeble cry sends a shudder of horror through the listener, and impresses indelibly the terrible consequences of sexual sin. Plenty of these scrawny infants may be seen in the lying-in hospitals. In children who survive infancy, its blighting influence may be seen in the notched, deformed teeth, and other defects ; and very often it will be found, upon looking into the mouth of the child, that the soft palate, and perhaps the hard palate as well.

Various disease which cause local irritation and congestion of the reproductive organs are the causes of unchastity in both sexes, as previously explained. It not unfrequently happens that by constantly dwelling upon unchaste subjects until a condition of habitual congestion of the sexual organs is produced, young women become seized with a furor for libidinous commerce which nothing but the desired object will appease, unless active remedial measures are adopted under the direction of a skillful physician. This disease, known as “nymphomania”, has been the occasion of the fall of many young women of the better classes who have been bred in luxury and idleness, but were never taught even the first lessons of purity or self-control. Constipation, piles, worms, pruritis of the genitals, and some other less common diseases of the urinary and genital systems, have been causes of sexual excitement which has resulted in moral degredation.

Perhaps nothing fosters vice more than ignorance. Prostitutes come almost entirely from the more ignorant classes, though there are, of course, many exceptions. Among the lowest classes, vice is seen in its grossest forms and is carried to the greatest lengths. Intellectual culture is antagonistic to sensuality. As a general rule, in proportion as the intellect is developed, the animal passions are brought into subjection. It is true that very intellectual men have been great libertines, and that the licentious Borgias and Medicis of Italy encouraged art and literature ; but those are only apparent exceptions, for who knows to what greater depths of vice these individuals might have sunk had it not been for the restraining influence of mental culture ? Says Deslandes, “In proportion as the intellect becomes enfeebled, the generative sensibility is augmented.” The animal passions seem to survive when all higher intelligence is lost. We once saw an illustration of this fact in an idiot who has brought before a medical class in a clinic at Bellevue Hospital, New York. The patient had been an idiot from birth, and presented the most revolting appearance, seemingly possessing scarcely the intelligence of the average dog; but his animal propensities were so great as to be almost uncontrollable. Indeed, he showed evidences of having been a gross debauchee, having contracted venereal disease of the worst form. The general prevalence of extravagant sexual excitement among the insane is a well-known fact.

Poverty.-The pressing influence of poverty has been urged as one cause of prostitution. It cannot be denied that in many cases, in large cities, this may be the immediate occasion of the entrance of a young girl upon a life of shame ; but it may still be insisted that there must have been in such cases, a deficiency in previous training ; for a young woman, educated with a proper regard for purity, would sooner sacrifice life itself than virtue. Again, poverty can be no excuse, for in every city there are made provisions for the relief of the needy poor, and none who are really worthy need suffer.

Lack of Early Training.- It is needless to demonstrate a fact so well established as that the future character of an individual depends very largely upon his early training. If purity and modesty are taught from earliest infancy, the mind is fortified against he assaults of vice. If, instead, the child is allowed to grow up untrained, if the seeds of vice which are sure to fall sooner or later in the most carefully kept ground are allowed to germinate, if the first buds of evil are allowed to grow and unfold instead of being promptly nipped, it must not be considered remarkable that in later years rank weeds of sin should flourish in the soul and bear their hideous fruit in shameless lives. Neglect to guard the avenues by which evil may approach the young mind, and to erect barriers against vice by careful instruction and a chaste example, leaves many innocent souls open to the assaults of evil, and am easy prey to lust. If children are allowed to get their training in the street, at the corner grocery, or hovering around saloons, they will be sure to develop a vigorous growth of the animal passions. The following extract is from the writings of one whose open has been an inestimable blessing to American youth;- “Among the first lessons which boys learn of their fellows are impurities of language ; and these are soon followed by impurities of thought. . . . When this is the training of boyhood, it is not strange that the predominating ideas among men, in relation to the other sex, are too often those of impurity and sensuality. . . . We cannot be surprised, then, that the history of most young men is, that they yield to temptation in a greater or less degree and in different ways With many, no doubt, the indulgence is transient, accidental, and does not become habitual. It does not get to be regarded as venial. It does not get to be regarded as venial. It is never yielded to without remorse. The wish and the purpose are to resist ; but the animal nature bears down the moral. Still, transgression is always followed by grief and penitence. “With too many, however, it is to be feared, it is not so. The mind has become debauched by dwelling on licentious images, and by indulgence in licentious conversation. There is no wish to resist. They are not overtaken by temptation, for they seek it. With them the transgression becomes habitual, and the stain on the character is deep and lasting.

Precocious Sexuality.-The causes of a too early development of sexual peculiarities, as manifested in infantile flirtations and early signs of sexual passion, were dwelt upon quite fully in a previous connection, and we need not repeat them here. Certain it is that few things can be more dangerous to virtue than the premature development of those sentiments which belong only to puberty and later years. It is a most unnatural, but not uncommon, sight to se a girl of tender age evincing all those characters which mark the wanton of older years. “Men’s Lewdness”- It cannot be denied that men are in the greatest degree responsible for the “social evil.” The general principle holds true here as elsewhere that the supply is regulated by the demand. If the patrons of prostitution should withdraw their support by a sudden acquisition of virtue, how soon would this vilest of traffics cease! The inmates of brothels would themselves become continent, if not virtuous, as the result of such a spasm of chastity in men. Again, the ranks of fallen women, which are rapidly thinned by loathsome diseases and horrid deaths are largely recruited from that class of unfortunates for whose fall faithless lovers or cunning, heartless libertines are chiefly responsible. The weak girl who, through too much trust, has been deceived and robbed of her dearest treasure, is disowned by relatives, shunned by her acquaintances, and turned out upon a cold world without money, without friends, without a character. What can she do ? Respectable employment she cannot find, for rumor follows her. There seems to be but one door open, the one which she herself so unintentionally opened. In despair, she enters the “open road to hell,” and to her first sad error adds a life of shame. Meanwhile the villain who betrayed her still maintains his standing in society, and plies his arts to win another victim. Is there not an unfair discrimination here ? Should not the secured be blackened with an infamy at least as deep as that which society casts on the one betrayed ? Fashion.-The temptation of dress, fine clothing, costly jewelry, and all the extravagances with which rich ladies array themselves, is in many cases too powerful for the weakened virtue of poor seamstresses, operatives, and servant girls, who have seen so much of vice as to have lost that instinctive loathing for it which they may have once experienced. Thinking to gain a life of ease, which means to gratify their love of show, they barter away their peace of mind for this world, all hope for the next, and only gain a little worthless tinsel the scorn of their fellow-creatures, and a host of loathsome diseases.

Gluttony.-As a predisposing cause, the influence of dietetic habits should rank next to heredity. It is an observed fact that “all libertines are great eaters or famous gastronomists.” The exciting influence upon the genital organs of such articles as pepper, mustard, ginger, spices, truffles, wine, and all alcoholic drinks, is well known. Tea and coffee directly excite the animal passions through their influence upon the nerve centers controlling the sexual organs. When children are raised upon asuch articles, or upon food with which they are thoroughly mingled, what wonder that they occasionally “turn ut bad”? How many mothers, while teaching their children the principles of virtue in the nursery, unwittingly stimulate their passions at the dinner table until vice becomes almost a physical necessity ! Nothing tends so powerfully to keep the passions in abeyance as a simple diet, free from condiments, especially when couples with a generous amount of exercise. Influence of tobacco in leading to unchastity

Libidinous Blood.-In no other direction are the effects of heredity to be more distinctly traced than in the transmission of sensual propensities. The children of libertines are almost certain to be rakes and prostitutes. History affords numerous examples in illustration of this fact. The daughter of Augustus was as unchaste as her father, and her daughter was as immoral as herself. The sons of David showed evident traces of their father’s failing. Witness the incest of Amnon, and the voluptuousness of Solomon, who had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Solomon’s son was, likewise, a noted polygamist, of whom the record days, “He desired many wives.” His son’s son manifested the same propensity in taking as many wives as the debilitated state of his kingdom allowed to trace the origin of this libidinous propensity still further back. A glance at the geneology of David will show that he was descended from Judah through Pharex, who was the result of an incestuous union between Judah and his daughter-in-law. It is unreasonable to suppose that the abnormal passion which led David to commit the most heinous in of his life in his adultery with Bath-sheba and subsequently procuring the death of her husband, was really an hereditary propensity which had come down to him through his ancestors, and which under more favorable circumstances, was more fully developed in his sons ? The trait may have kept dormant by the active and simple habits of his earl years, but asserted itself in full force under the fostering influence of royal indleness and luxury. In accordance with the known laws of heredity, such a tendency would be the legitimate result of such a combination of circumstances. The influence of marital excesses, and especially sexual indulgence during pregnancy, in producing viscious tendencies in offspring, has been fully dwelt upon elsewhere in this work, and will be considered here, it being only necessary to call attention to the subject. Physiology shows conclusively that thousands of parents whose sons have become libertines and their daughters courtesans, have themselves implanted in their characters the propensity which led to their unchastity.

The Social Evil. Illicit intercourse has been a foul blot upon humanity from the earliest periods of history. At the present moment, it is a loathsome ulcer eating at the heart of civilization, a malignant leprosy which shows its hideous deformities among the fairest results of modern culture. Our large cities abound with dens of vice whose “habitués” shamelessly promenade the most public street sand flaunt their infamy in the face of every passer-by. In many large cities, especially in those of Continental Europe, these holds of vice are placed under the supervision of the law by the requirement that every keeper of a house of prostitution must pay for a liscence ; in other words, must buy the right to lead his fellow-men “down to the depths of hell.” In smaller cities, as well as in large ones, in fact, from the great metropolis down to the country village, the haunts of vice are found. Every army is flanked by bands of courtesans. Whenever men go, loose women follow, penetrating even to the wildness of the miner’s camp far beyond the verge of civilization. But brothels and traveling strumpets do not fully represent the vast extent of this monster evil. There is a class of immoral women-probably exceeding in numbers the grosser lass just referred to-who consider themselves respectable. Few are acquainted with their character. They live in elegant style and mingle in genteel society. Privately, they prosecute the most unbounded liscentiousness, for the purpose of gain, or merely to gratify their lewdness. “kept mistresses” are much more numerous than common prostitutes.

Murder by Proxy.-“There is at the present time, a kind of infanticide, which, although it is not so well known, is even more dangerous, because done with impunity. There are parents who recoil with horror at the idea of destroying their offspring, although they would greatly desire to be disembarrassed of them, who yet place them without remorse with nurses who enjoy the sinister reputation of never returning the children to those who have untrusted them to their care. These unfortunate little beings are condemned to perish from inanition and bad treatment. “The number of these innocent victims is greater than would be imagined, and very certainly exceeds that of the marked infanticides sent by the public prosecutor to the Court of the Assizes.”

The Remedy.-Whether this gigantic evil can ever be eradicated, is exceedingly doubtful. To effect its cure would be to make refined Christians out of brutal sensualists to emancipate woman from the enticing, alluring slavery of fashion ; to uproot false ideas of life and its duties, -in short, to revolutionize society. The crime is perpetrated in secret. Many times no one but the criminal herself is cognizant of the evil deed. Only occasionally do cases come near enough to the surface to be dimly discernible ; hence the evident inefficiency of any civil legislation. But the evil is a desperate one, and is increasing ; shall no attempt be made to check the tide of crime and save the sufferers from both physical and spiritual perdition ? An effort should be made, at least. Let every Christian raise the note of warning from every Christian pulpit let the truth be spoken in term too plain for misapprehension. Let those who are known to be guilty of this most revolting crime be looked upon as murderers, as they are ; and let their real moral status be distinctly shown.

An Unwelcome Child.-But suppose the mother does not succeed in her attempts against the life of her child, as she may not ; what fearful results may follow! Who can doubt that the murderous intent of the mother will be stamped indelibly upon the character of the unwelcome child, giving it a natural propensity for the commission of murderous deeds? Then again-sickening thought-suppose that attempts to destroy the child are unsuccessful, resulting only in horrid mutilation of its tender form ; when such a child is born, what terrible evidences may it bear in its crippled and misshaped body of the cruel outrage perpetrated upon it!

Results of this Unnatural Crime.-It is the universal testimony of physicians that the effects of abortion are almost as deadly upon the mother as upon the child. The amount of suffering is vastly greater ; for that of the child, if it suffer at all, is only momentary, in general, while the mother is doomed to a life of suffering, or misery, if she survives the shock of the terrible outrage against her nature. It has been proved by statistics that the danger of immediate death is “fifteen times as great as in natural childbirth.” A medical author of note asserts that a woman suffers more injury from one abortion than she would from twenty normal births. Says Dr. Gardner on this point:- “We know that the popular idea is that women are wornout by the toil and wear connected with the raising of large families, and we can willingly concede something to this statement ; but it is certainly far more observable that the efforts at the present day, made to avoid propagation, are ten thousand-fold more disastrous to the health and constitution, to say nothing of the demoralization of mind and heart, which cannot be estimated by red cheeks or physical vigor.”

Instruments of Crime.—"The means through which abortions are effected are various. Sometimes it is through potent drugs, extensively advertised in newspapers claiming to be moral!—the advertisements so adroitly worded as to convey under a caution the precise information required of the liability of the drug to produce miscarriages. Sometimes the information is conveyed through secret circulars; but more commonly the deed is consummated by professed abortionists, who advertise themselves as such through innuendo, or through gaining this kind of repute by the frequent commission of the act. Not a very few women, deterred by lingering modesty or some sense of shame, attempt to execute it upon themselves, and then volunteer to instruct and encourage others to go and do likewise.”